Sorbus domestica, with the common name service tree or sorb tree (because of its fruit), is a species of Sorbus native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa (Atlas Mountains), and southwest Asia (east to the Caucasus). It may be called true service tree, to distinguish it from wild service tree Sorbus torminalis.
It is a deciduous tree growing to 15â20 m (rarely to 30 m) tall with a trunk up to 1 m diameter, though it can also be a shrub 2â3 m tall on exposed sites. The bark is brown, smooth on young trees, becoming fissured and flaky on old trees. The winter buds are green, with a sticky resinous coating. The leaves are 15â25 cm long, pinnate with 13-21 leaflets 3â6 cm long and 1 cm broad, with a bluntly acute apex, and a serrated margin on the outer half or two thirds of the leaflet. The flowers are 13â18 mm diameter, with five white petals and 20 creamy-white stamens; they are produced in corymbs 10â14 cm diameter in late spring, and are hermaphrodite and insect pollinated. The fruit is a pome 2â3 cm long, greenish-brown, often tinged red on the side exposed to sunlight; it can be either apple-shaped (f. pomifera (Hayne) Rehder) or pear-shaped (f. pyrifera (Hayne) Rehder).